Howick and Pakuranga Times : Howick and Pakuranga Times Monday July 14 2014

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Monday, July 14, 2014
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Vol 43, No 55
General 271 8000  Classified 271 8055  Delivery Enquiries 271 8014  Website www.times.co.nz
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INSIDE Brutal bashing of store owner ........................... page 3
Park space for dogs wanted ................................ page 5
Readers’ letters to the editor .............................. page 8
Our Homes TODAY .................................... pages 18-19
Classified advertising ................................. pages 20-23
Times Sport .................................................. pages 23-24
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Waiheke
126071
Est. 1972
MULTI AWARD WINNING NEWSPAPER
By Marianne Kelly
PRICE hikes resulting from
changing the hire rate for coun-
cil-owned venues from per
meeting to hourly have left commu-
nity groups aghast and on the search
for alternative premises.
The Nixon Park Hall Commit-
tee has written to the Howick Local
Board and ward councillors strongly
opposing “the confusing and compli-
cated 400 per cent plus increase of
hall hire fees to the regular loyal hall
users”.
It’s asking for the proposal to be
urgently rescinded.
Meanwhile, the Bucklands Beach
Combined Probus Club is reacting
with its feet by considering a shift
from the council-owned Memo-
rial Hall in Wharf Road, Bucklands
Beach, to the Bucklands Beach Bowl-
ing Club.
The Howick Local Board passed a
resolution to change the hire fee at its
meeting last April.
The two main changes were to
charge fees on an hourly basis and to
apply discounts for off-peak hours,
10 or more bookings a year, activities
based on certain community criteria,
and a priority rate for not-for-profit
and community groups where 50
per cent or more are from the local
board’s area.
The new rates applied from the
start of this month.
Increasing hall charges to $44 an
hour from $30 per meeting leaves the
Bucklands Beach Combined Probus
Club facing a 435 per cent increase to
$1056 a year, although it may qualify
for a long-serve user discount.
Probus club member Robin Angus
is also annoyed about a plan to install
swipe card locks so groups pay for
the time occupied.
“Should our payment for an invoice
not be recorded for any reason, even
an accounting error by the council,
the card will not activate the lock,”
he says.
“This could leave our members out
in the cold on the footpath through
no cause of their committee.”
In the letter to the board and coun-
cillors, Nixon Park Hall Committee
president Jody Nicolson says the hall
users represent more than 1000 resi-
dents, “which the local board con-
firms they continuously rely upon”.
“Five other local boards have
already refused to accept such unre-
alistic increases in hall hire fees.”
Lucy Schwaner, the local board’s
community facilities portfolio leader,
says the board discussed the issue
at its workshop last Wednesday and
concedes the situation “hasn’t been
handled as well as it should have”.
“We need to fix it and we are going
to. We are keen to hear from groups
affected by the proposed changes to
fees so that we have as much infor-
mation as possible to ensure we
resolve the problem.
“I’m confident that in the near
future a solution will be arrived at
that will balance the needs of both
user groups and local ratepayers.
“We are very lucky in Howick to
have a lot of community organisa-
tions that are highly valued by the
public.
“Council and ratepayers have tra-
ditionally supported them with sub-
sidised rental in public halls and it’s
important that we continue to do
so.”
Former Manukau City councillor
and local board member Bob Wich-
man says he personally doesn’t agree
that increases were necessary, “but
I suppose the Auckland Council has
to find ways to make up for its loose
purse strings somehow”.
Mrs Nicolson says halls built by
the community for the people may
end up being empty much of the time
due to lack of patronage.
ANGRY COMMUNITY GROUPS: President of the Nixon Park Hall Committee, Jody Nicolson, front right, and Dave Downie, front left, are leading a protest on behalf of
1000 hall users outraged at increased hire fees.
Times photo Wayne Martin
Users outraged by fees hike
INTO THE BIG TIME
Matthew Turner, 13, a member of the Howick Children’s and
Youth Theatre for five years, has scored a leading role in The
Sound of Music.
Page 11
SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER
Howick College executive secretary Shirley Pincham, who has
been at the school for a quarter of a century, is heading
into retirement.
Page 2